


Precipice at Adamant

by Elalavella, TK_DuVeraun



Series: Power Couple AU [4]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Depression, F/M, Rating-Consistent Violence, Slight Suicidal Ideation, dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-28 18:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14455641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elalavella/pseuds/Elalavella, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TK_DuVeraun/pseuds/TK_DuVeraun
Summary: Ela falls into the Fade with the Inquisitor, unfortunately the last thing she sees is Fox being run through with a sword. He's little better, having seen her fall to her death. Neither is particularly well-prepared for it.---Please read the rest of the series for context!





	1. Adamant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter written by [Varg](https://elalavella.tumblr.com/) who asked me to post it and just list her as a co-creator.
> 
> This chapter contains a character thinking that life is not worth living. It's a small mention, but if you are bothered by such things, feel free to skip this chapter.

Ela had wished for Fox longer than she would ever admit, not to herself and certainly not to  _him_. The smugness would be unbearable if he knew just for how long and how much she’d wanted him; there’d be no living with him. But from day one he had her interest. His pretty face and flirtatious introduction had still been on her mind when she went to bed that night. It had felt a little unfair, he wasn’t the only one she flirted with, and she sure wasn’t the only one for him either. Still, she couldn’t help but think of him when she found herself alone. For far too long, longer than she’d ever admit, had she wanted. 

_It doesn’t feel real. It can’t be real._

The misunderstandings has been terribly unfortunate. So much time spent with her dwelling on her feelings while believing there was no chance of him returning them. Too much time wasted on him thinking she was uncomfortable at his side. Once they’d come together and actually talked to each other, things turned for the better. Instantly. The camp in the mountains hadn’t been as cold, that night. 

_This is… This has to be a nightmare._

Ela knew her reaction was… unusual. Once she finally had what she wanted it had been a challenge to even look him in the eyes, to even hold a simple conversation. But she hadn’t been able to help herself, it was just all very overwhelming. Having Fox near, having him with his arms around her at night and his lips against hers in the morning, showing herself undressed on more than one occasion; it was still unusual. And lovely. Overwhelming. 

_This is a lie. Nothing more than a lie._

Once she’d gotten more used to it, to Fox, it was wonderful. Waking up with their bodies tangled together gave her nothing but joy. All she’d feel while looking into his sky-blue eyes was delight. Love. Ela was just so very in love with Fox. Before the assault, he’d confessed his own love. Said the words aloud, even though they’d been present, but unspoken for so long. She loved him back, but she didn’t manage to say when the adrenaline and worry of what might come spun in her head. They settled with a tight hug and warm kiss. Of course she hadn’t managed to say. 

_It’s choking me. This lie, this nightmare, it’s not real. It can’t be real._

When the dragon had appeared near and plucked warden commander Clarel from her spot on the bridge, Ela called Fox’s name, hoping he’d be able to help. Even the Inquisitor stood no match for the dragon, not after the long fight they’d already endured. Fox answered Ela promptly with hers, and she could see him running down the battlements to reach them. His eyes had been on hers. Not on the warden at his back, weapon raised.

Ela didn’t know when the dragon had taken flight or how the bridge broke under them. All she could see, all she cared about, was Fox. Fox, falling to his knees, dropping his staff, eyes wide and staring at her, with a sword plunged through his torso. Blood coloured the sword’s length and Ela could feel her insides twisting into hard, nauseating knots. She screamed his name again, and ran with whatever might she still had towards him. His hand uselessly reached for her and she heard him call her name once more, before the crumbling of the bridge caught up with her and brought her down with the rubble.

_He’s dead? No. No, no, it’s not true. A vicious lie. I can’t breathe._

The rest all just talked. 

_Fox is dead. Fox was killed, he didn’t see. It’s my fault, I distracted him._

They just mumbled and wondered, saying they were all in the fade, physically. “How’d we get here?” “We need to find a way out?” “How big is this place?” “How will we get out?”

_…_

_Who fucking cares._

_Fox has died; so have I._


	2. Precipice

Fox couldn’t breathe. Not because of the sword in his chest, no that was just skewering his guts painfully, not obstructing his lungs. No, it was because before his very eyes Ela,  _ his _ Belovèd, had fallen to her death as the battlements collapsed from the false arch demon’s attack. It was like something out of a torrid Orlesian bodice ripper. He could practically see the page in front of his eyes. He’d clutch at the sword in his chest, give some hopelessly romantic last words and then die with her name on his lips.

Pity Orlesians were so afraid of magic. 

In a blinding burst of force and creation magic, Fox ripped the sword out through his back and healed the wound enough that he’d live. For how long, he wasn’t sure, but it would hardly matter. Magical lightning crackled along his arms as he stood and curling wisps of purple smoke left his boots to slither along the old stone. He howled, a broken, wounded cry turned inhuman and piercing by Fear magic.

Around him, every fighter not actively under Erimond’s control fell to their knees clutching their ears with blood and tears streaming from their eyes. Fox whipped his arm out and his staff flew into his hand with a quiet swish of magic through air. Tendrils of fear scattered away from him with every step he took across what remained of the battlements. His pace was slow as his Fear magic stabbed hardened warriors through the heart and left them sobbing like babes in his wake, but it hardly mattered. Without Ela, he had all the time in the world to deal with these roaches.

With imperious gestures of his hands, Fox instructed his wisps of fear to pass over Inquisition soldiers, but most cringed and cowered regardless. The wisps caressed them like jilted lovers as Fox passed. He couldn’t hear the sounds of battle as he walked. The Veil was weak and tattered from so many summonings and all Fox could hear was the chorus of promises from the demons begging to be given the chance to act on his vengeance. He ignored them. Demons weren’t creative enough with their torture.

Everything was painted over with faint purple from the Fear clinging to his face. Oh, it all looked very dramatic, but it was like looking through a sliver of Fade. Fox could clearly see which of the Wardens were under Erimond’s control and he could see the spells the mages and demons conjured before they manifested in the real world. This let him cancel incoming spells with concentrated blasts of Lightning before they even launched. The mages he countered surely begged for the irrational terror of the Fear wisps because that had to be better than their magic betraying them before they were sliced from ear to ear by the razor-sharp blade at the end of Fox’s staff.

“Maker’s breath!” Cullen exclaimed. The commander was nearly white from his exhaustion and the sight of Fox.

Fox felt a pull on the Fade as the commander tried to smite him, but between giving up lyrium and the sheer outpouring of strength of will from Fox it had no effect. Fox lifted a single eyebrow at the commander, but between the wisps and his aura of magic, it looked like a grotesque shift of half his face.

Cullen visibly clenched his jaw and took several breaths to calm himself. Stiff, he turned to the runner at his side. “We need Seeker Cassandra.  _ Now. _ ”

“The Seeker fell with the Inquisitor,” Fox said, but his voice was buoyed by the whispers of the demons clawing at his control.

When the commander’s only response was a visceral flinch, Fox turned away and continued his solitary march through the battle in Adamant Fortress. Every step he took was measured, with his magic slithering away to lash out at everything around him. But his lack of speed was not for lack of purpose. He knew what he wanted. Magister Livius Erimond, the sniveling wretch, was in the center hall, but Fox wasn’t going to approach him directly. No, the magister would stand alone and watch as everyone he controlled and commanded fell under the weight of Fox’s wrath.

By the time Fox made it to the uncovered hall where Erimond was attempting his summoning, the demons were shouting their offers at a fever pitch. They’d loaned him power, strength, magic trying to earn his favor and attention over the others. His was a soul bloody, broken and ripe for the picking. Fox’s heart whispered to them that once Erimond had suffered enough, for some definition of enough, then it would be free to the demon that had most-pleased him.

“Faust! You! You’re a Sa’alle! What do you want? Sybil gone? I can make it happen. You’ll have her seat in the magisterium. Lauded as a  _ hero. _ Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you,” Erimond shouted. The magister’s voice broke on every third word as he glanced at the rift that was stubbornly not producing the demon he wanted.

No, the only demon was in front of him.

Fox bared his teeth and the Fear wisps writhed across his face until he bore the illusion of vicious fangs. “Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have your senses blacked out? Sight, gone. Hearing snuffed out. Smell burned away. Sensation numbed until you were only a miniscule wisp of consciousness trapped in your own mind? I have all kinds of friends that would like to help you stop wondering.”

With a flourish, Fox spun his staff, the demons cheering through the thin remnants of Veil, each vying for their chance. Lightning crackled in the air as Fox planted the blade of his staff in the stone.

But before magic could burst forth and cut Erimond’s hysterical scream short, the rift burst open in a howl of green magic. Fox ignored the angry screaming from the demons clawing at his mind and frowned at the rift. The demon being successfully summoned was rather a damper on his plans. He wanted years to torture to Erimond and he wouldn’t have the magic left to do that if he had to fight such a sizable foe.

The magic shifting and crackling around Fox disappeared in an instant, consolidating back into solid power in his chest, ready to break out and destroy the inconvenience so he could return to his plans of torture.

The rift flared again, sending green tendrils of magic across the length of the hall. It tore open with the scream of a thousand dying beasts and revealed a glimpse of pure Fade. But only for a moment before Cassandra leapt out.

In a single motion, Fox dropped his staff and lunged at the twisting, green magic. Whether due to prescience or serendipity, Fox made contact with Ela the moment she emerged from the rift. They fell to the stone floor sobbing. Heedless of anything else, they patted eachother down with desperate hands, checking for wounds and trying to confirm the sharp, brutal _ realness _ of the other.

Fox knew Ela was speaking, desperate, clawing, wounded words, but he couldn’t hear her over the disappointed wailing from the demons in the Fade. He tried to speak over them, profess his love for her until it was all they could hear, but his own sobs choked him and eventually he just held her tightly and pressed his face into her neck, his throat too tight for words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh I love evil/creepy mages <3


End file.
